


The Last Lord Standing

by Metal_Gear_XANA



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Character-centric, Drabbles, Gen, Post-Timeskip, pre-release
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 18:05:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19706668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metal_Gear_XANA/pseuds/Metal_Gear_XANA
Summary: Pre-release, 'Fire Emblem: Three Houses', Post-Timeskip. Three drabbles dealing with the scenario of one of the three lords (Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude) having bested and killed the other two, and how that person reflects upon their actions. Edelgard has eliminated Dimitri and Claude, sealing the deal that she is the perfect rational ruler. Dimitri having killed Edelgard and Claude now plans to resurrect them to remind him of the good old days. Claude feels that he has done all he could; the deaths of Edelgard and Dimitri have set Fodlan free, yet his feelings are conflicted.





	The Last Lord Standing

The Last Lord Standing (Trilogy)

**A/N: Each drabble is divided into three sections to distinguish them from each other. They're in the order of the House leaders: Edelgard, Dimitri, and then Claude!**

* * *

** The (Un)Just Ruler **

Edelgard has become the flawless rational ruler that she has always aspired to be.

Before her lay the corpse of the mad man she knew as Dimitri, whose head had been lopped off and had rolled somewhere down the hill. Not too far from the blue and black wrecked human was the battered body of someone none would recognise due to how mutilated it was: Claude. Blood dripped down from the peculiar axe of hers. They have both been slain by her, the just ruler whom has successfully suppressed her emotions. Their armies were faltering as she stood; she could hear the cries of mercy from the retreating enemy soldiers.

Lilac eyes cooly regarded Dimitri’s corpse. Her frown, always intact and fit for a stoic emperor, deepened.

“I have emancipated you from your depths of madness, Dimitri,” Edelgard spoke, sounding proud of her act. “Soon your people will be free from your rule.”

Her attention then drifted to the fallen archer that was Claude. A tiny smug smirk broke through her stolid facade as she eyed the body. “Did you honestly think you could fool me, Claude? I have known about your antics since the monastery days.”

Not a word from Claude. That was a good thing for his sharp-tongue brought chagrin to Edelgard. Silence was indeed golden, especially coming from someone who was an enemy now laying dead on the ground. 

One would expect Edelgard to feel some semblance of remorse and guilt for having slain two former friends. But the emperor did not. Instead she felt triumphant. Justice has been served; Dimitri was mad and obsessed about bringing the dead back to life, whereas Claude was cunning as he was charismatic. Emotions and silly concepts of ‘friendship’ and ‘companionship’ had no place in her rule as the emperor. Soon the entire continent of Fódlan will be blessed with the fruits of rationality under its new perfect leader.

Edelgard observed from the hilltop the sight of Adrestian troops slaughtering those that stood in their way. A few wyvern riders shot flaming arrows atop village huts, setting the pitiful wooden buildings on fire. Bloodcurdling screams from the laity brought a strange pang to her heart. She shook her head to rid such troublesome thoughts. This war of hers was just! Why should she feel anything when a few sacrifices were necessary for her cause?

“Mercy is for the frailest of hearts,” Edelgard spoke with such bravado that her eyes gleamed. Her hand clutched her axe. “Such a heart is not suitable for an emperor!” 

Calm and collected. She was always calm and collected. To lose control was to collapse under pressure. In order to not lose control she had to abandon friends and companionships. Those were noble sacrifices. Nothing was holding her back now. Five years ago she was but a soft hearted child that sought genuine relationships. Now she was perfect. Nothing fazed her anymore.

“The two of you were fools to think that you could rule this continent,” Edelgard uttered for only the corpses of Dimitri and Claude to hear.

She readied her axe over her shoulder and eyed the village hungrily as she fantasied it falling to Adrestia. A new age was bound for Fódlan, with her as its perfect and rational ruler.

“Now watch me from above to see what a true leader is capable of…”

* * *

**Broken to (Un)Broken **

A single icy eye regarded the two corpses before him with a wistfulness that only dramas could dream of replicating. 

His heaving and laboured breathing steadily became even, and his aching muscles slowly settled to suit their master’s needs. Once he regained composure he moved over to the impaled person clad in red with her white hair, once tied into two neat buns, cascaded across her features. He kneeled to gently cup the face of Edelgard so for her to look at his eye-level. Really it mattered not her staring at him when her usually vibrant lilac eyes were as milky as her skin. A sad smile found itself onto Dimitri’s usually stolid face.

“Oh Edelgard; you were so consumed with your idea of justice that you failed to notice the injustices you caused to your people and all across Fòdlan,” Dimitri uttered solemnly as he thumbed her chin.

He then stood up and moved over to a person clad in yellow whom had bled to death due to a multitude of grazed wounds by Dimitri. The former prince crouched and ran his fingers through Claude’s hair where he then stroked the back of the deceased archer’s neck. He could hear Claude’s jubilant giggling as he caressed the man’s hair.

“Dearest Claude; you thought of me as naive back in our monastery days, yet it was you who was naive to have thought that you could convince I and Edelgard to end this war,” Dimitri spoke as he brushed the man’s hair.

An impatient neigh from Dimitri’s great white war horse broke his thoughts. He stood up and glanced at the horse to assure the animal that he would be leaving now.

The tired man approached his steed where he placed his spear away. He gave a few pats to his horse, whom eyed him suspiciously regarding what the lord had in mind. A smile appeared on Dimitri’s face. 

“Don’t worry about those two; they will be back to life and everything will be perfect…!” Dimitri assured his horse, although his assurance was more so to himself.

Chuckles of joy echoed from him. Such chuckles sounded so twisted and pleased, as if the man had lost his way. A few tears started to run down his eye and even from beneath the patch of his damaged eye. His smile refused to falter as he went back to the two fallen lords. 

“You two will be brought back from the grave where you will be by my side forever and beyond…!” Dimitri spoke so enthusiastically that he sounded like a child receiving the gifts they always wanted.

First he picked up Edelgard, went over to his horse and placed her atop it, and then he repeated the gesture with Claude. He then fastened the corpses tightly so that they will not fall off his steed.

“We can study together in our secret place Edelgard just like during the monastery days!” Dimitri continued as he finished fastening the bodies to his horse.

“Claude-you and I can get back to mischief! We can prank the other students and laugh together!” Dimitri said rapturously as he flung himself atop his horse.

Atop his steed Dimitri looked over his shoulder to regard the corpses of Edelgard and Claude with the softest and fondest look a man could muster. The tears of joy kept flowing, and his smile of sheer excitement stuck to his face. 

“It will be just like the good old days, when there was no war between us. We’ll be together again: Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude, the Lord Trio.”

With that addressed Dimitri whipped his reigns and his horse took off with a mad man that didn’t realise how truly broken and dismayed he is.

* * *

**Last One Standing **

“Well… I’m the last one standing…”

Claude shook his head as he said this. With his free hand he rubbed his sideburns; he would be lying if he said he wasn’t uncomfortable. Green eyes observed the body of Edelgard pressed against a tree, and Dimitri outstretched belly first on the grassy floor. Blood deepened the red clothing of Edelgard; one of her buns was undone to have dirty white hair cover her face. A pool of blood emerged from under Dimitri and spread like a puddle. Arrows struck from both lords’ bodies, making them appear like a series of grotesque artworks. 

“I tried to get you guys on friendlier terms, but you left me no choice,” Claude sighed deeply, his chest feeling a weight of remorse.

He cocked his eyebrow towards Edelgard. “You honestly thought I was going to abide by war conduct? You really didn’t think I would have ambushed you or Dimitri?”

Silence graced him. 

What did he expect? He was talking to a corpse. 

Claude turned over to Dimitri. He then kneeled over the dead prince’s body. A frown found itself on Claude’s usually happy-go-lucky face.

“If you had just not gone insane then you would have lived,” Claude mentioned dryly, his head shaking from side to side.

More silence. 

Claude growled. His dark eyebrows furrowed. Some strange anger ignited in him. His fingers clenched tightly against his bow.

“ _Eye there!_ How are you Dimitri!?” Claude shouted by Dimitri’s ear.

There was a naive, an uncharacteristically silly, part of him that thought that if he insulted Dimitri’s lack of eye that it would ‘wake up the unconscious man’. His rage turned to Edelgard, where he stood up and stormed up to her. He grabbed her by the collar and shook her, causing her lolled head to shake.

“Is this all you have to offer, Edelgard!? _Some emperor you turned out!_ ” He screamed at her.

Nothing.

Claude gritted his teeth and shoved the dead emperor back against the tree. His breathing grew heavier and heavier as he increasingly became angrier and angrier. Why was he getting so worked out? They were no longer his friends. The moment the three-way war started there was not even the slightest chance that they would become friends again. Really he should be celebrating. He did the Leicester Alliance proud, and saved the continent from two unstable rulers.

Why was his eyesight becoming blurry!? 

Claude rubbed his eyelids and took some deep breaths to calm down. Once he regained his composure he looked back at Edelgard and Dimitri. Tears ran down his cheeks and fell onto the ground. Without a word he went back to Edelgard where he gently closed her eyes. Then he went to Dimitri to turn him over onto his back. When he adjusted Dimitri he noticed some flowers. Claude took a few of them and laid some on the prince’s chest, and the rest on Edelgard’s laps. Once done Claude stood up to regard his former friends one last time. 

“You two did this to yourselves…”

Then he turned around and walked away to leave the two corpses to be properly attended. The only sound that broke the silence was the sobbing from Claude.

* * *

**A/N: These drabbles were taken from my tumblr @cynical-gamer-media.**


End file.
